Tool of MJ12
by GreatLight432
Summary: JC and Gunther square off...but the duel's ending is not what you might expect! SPOILER WARNING!


Tool of MJ12  
  
As quietly as possible, the man known as JC Denton slowly made his way to the basement of the Templar Knight's Cathedral. He had seen on the security terminal from the WIB's room that it was unguarded...but Denton knew better. Especially from the datacube that he found in one of the troop's rooms...and the infolink transmissions...  
  
'Yes...obey your new masters...come to me!'  
  
'You are prowling around like a mouse...and dumb like a mouse, like you forget about Agent Navarre. I remember Agent Navarre...I remember for EVERYONE...'  
  
"Gunther," Denton muttered under his breath as he punched in the code to gain access to the basement proper. The German mech-aug that had tutored him in the use of weapons at the UNATCO Academy, and then assisted him in repulsing the NSF attack on Liberty Island. But that almost seemed like a lifetime ago...back when he still believed UNATCO was on the side of light.  
  
He wasn't surprised, of course...Gunther and Anna Navarre had been close to each other, although they were often at odds with each other on their views up to and including nano-augmentation, to 'staff plots'. A slight smile appeared for a nanosecond on the man's face at the memory of Gunther and Anna discussing the soda machine's mistake.  
  
Now, though...now, Gunther was out for blood. He had sworn he'd hunt the traitor JC down, when he had managed to escape UNATCO HQ. Never mind the fact that JC had no choice but to use Anna's killphrase when she confronted him on Level 2. And never mind the fact that Walton Simons and the rest of Majestic 12 were turning UNATCO into its own personal, public army, along with using Gunther to try and finish off the one man who could possibly stop their designs.  
  
Honestly, JC thought, he didn't want to kill the man. But if Gunther refused to listen to reason...  
  
Shaking his head to clear it of the remaining distractions, Denton pulled out his assault rifle, checked the clip, and slowly crept into the room. His senses were on high alert, and he was ready to flip on any of his augmentations at a second's notice. Swinging around a corner silently, he scanned left, then right, his weapon trained on every corner. The pillars would make a good place to hide for an ambush, but Denton didn't think that would be Gunther's style...when he wanted to kill, he also wanted his victim to see it coming.  
  
Carefully, the agent stepped off of the stairs, his rifle held steady, as he approached the computer. When he was within a few feet of it, a well known German voice, dripping with anger, stopped him in his tracks.  
  
"I vregret that only vunce ve vorked together...now, the game has changed."  
  
Slowly, the nano-aug agent turned to face his opponent. Stepping from the shadows of the pillars just out of sight of both the camera and his initial view from the stairs, was a towering mass of muscle and titanium. Gunther's face was hard to read(such was the fate of many who chose to be mechanically augmented), but JC nonetheless detected a degree of satisfaction and pleasure in the mech-aug's countenance.  
  
"You came all the way to Paris to tell me that?" he asked.  
  
"It is a simple message ve are demonstrating...ve know vhere you are going, and vhat you intend!" Gunther answered with smug satisfaction.  
  
"And I know something about you," JC began.  
  
"You know dat you vill be defeated," the mech-aug finished.  
  
Undeterred, Denton answered, "No...I know you hate being a tool of conspiracies as much as I do. How about we make a gentlemen's agreement?"  
  
"Valton Simons has promised me ANY upgrades I vant after I kill you. DAT is a gentleman's agreement!"  
  
And in that moment, inhumanly fast, Gunther pulled out his flamethrower, and began spraying the area with the napalm ammo. JC barely had enough time to leap to the side, activating three of his augmentations with a thought: Aggressive Defense, Speed, and his Power Recirculator. As he looked up from the roll, he saw with a degree of surprise that Jaime had been right: the ADS did, in fact, block the flamethrower's blasts, ending them far enough back that all he felt was a rush of heat.  
  
Growling in frustration, Gunther threw the useless heavy weapon aside, and pulled out his back up, an assault rifle similar to his opponent's. This time, Denton took cover behind a pillar, hearing the rapid fire reports from the weapon, along with the crumbling rock next to his right shoulder. Leaning around the left of the pillar, he snapped off a short burst of his own, causing the mech-aug to jump back a bit in surprise.  
  
"So, de little mouse decides to hiss and growl in de corner...but you are still a mouse, and you vill see how helpless you are, soon enough."  
  
Denton bit his lip as he shut down his augmentations...for the moment, he was...  
  
A noise from his left had him in motion instantly...but not instantly enough. This time, Gunther's burst of automatic fire caught his victim in the left leg, making the younger agent grunt in pain as he took shelter behind another pillar.  
  
"You see? If you give yourself up, I promise to make your death swift and painless...more than you deserve. You haff no escape, and you know dis..." the mech-aug taunted his opponent.  
  
Thinking fast, as he listened vainly for Gunther's footsteps, the agent took a gamble, and pulled out a Gas grenade. Thumbing the switch, he called out over his shoulder, "You know what your problem is, Gunther? You talk too much..." And with that, the grenade was thrown over his left shoulder as he sprinted to his right, activating his enhanced speed augmentation. Once he heard the grenaded make its steady beep prior to detonation, he leapt, preparing to aim...when a burst from Gunther's rifle, hidden beneath the detonation, knocked his own rifle from his hands.  
  
Grunting painfully, Denton landed awkwardly, looking up hurriedly at his opponent...but he saw that his gamble had worked. Mech-aug or no, he was still human, and was trying desperately to get out of the gas clouds. Pulling the sawed-off shotgun he carried for emergencies like this, Denton chambered a round, causing Gunther to look up and blindly fire his rifle...but this time, the younger agent simply ducked, avoiding the volley as he fired a blast at the man's knees.  
  
Screaming in pain, Gunther staggered. JC took no notice of this, only chambering another round and firing another blast, again into his knees.  
  
"GAH!" he growled as he dropped to the ground, his face twisted in pain. Desperately, he tried to bring the assault rifle to bear, but another blast from JC's shotgun rendered his arm almost completely useless.  
  
Panting heavily, JC slowly stood, wincing at the pain radiating from his leg and his hand. A simple thought redirected power from his speed augmentation to regeneration. As his wounds began to heal, JC slowly stepped around Gunther's kneeling body, keeping his shotgun trained on him, as the mech-aug lay hunched over, panting for breath. As he stepped around to where his back was facing the computer, the former agent noticed a holoprojector at the opposite end...and on it was...  
  
"Walton Simons...enjoy the show?" Denton asked coolly.  
  
The FEMA Director stared placidly at his adversary as he answered, "For the most part...we certainly did teach you how to fight, didn't we?"  
  
"You're worried, Simons...we almost have a cure."  
  
"You have nothing! Even if you did manage to synthesize a cure, you would need a Universal Constructor to manufacture enough of it, and don't think Page Industries is going to leave one lying around for you to use...not after you blew up the one in Hong Kong," Simons countered.  
  
"And I...vill not...let you live...to get zis cure..." Gunther managed as he struggled to his feet, reaching for his rifle.  
  
Simons looked over at Gunther now, his distaste showing quite clearly. "You're wasting your time, Gunther...and mine, too. I think it's time to reunite you with your old partner."  
  
"Vhat...? No, you cannot...I am still viable...!" Gunther shouted angrily.  
  
"And as such, you are ordered to execute Program 99009..that is, Self- Termination. But since you're too squeamish, I'm willing to do this for you, Laputan..."  
  
*KA-BOOM!*  
  
The roar of the shotgun seemed especially loud this time, and the results were a little more spectacular. The holoprojector's plate exploded in a shower of sparks, dissolving Walton Simons' image immediately before he could finish. Gunther spun awkwardly, dropping to his knees with a loud groan of pain, but even through the augmentations and pain, JC was able to see the surprise on his opponent's face. Wordlessly, he holstered the now- empty shotgun and turned back, hacking the computer and quickly uploading the virus schematic to Morgan Everett. Once that was finished, he turned back and began to walk away, past the mech-aug's dazed form.  
  
"Vait..."  
  
JC stopped and turned back to his fallen opponent. "Yeah?"  
  
"Vhy did you not kill me? Vhy did you stop Simons from killing me? I vas ready to join Agent Navarre...I was ready to die..." Gunther asked softly.  
  
A long moment passed before Denton spoke. "I don't know...maybe it was because you were already beaten, and what Simons was about to do amounted to murder..."  
  
"Den vhat about Agent Navarre? You used her own killphrase, did you not?" Gunther accused.  
  
"Yeah...I used her killphrase. But that was different...she knew what UNATCO was becoming, and she didn't care. She was working for Walton Simons the whole time, readying people like you for use by Majestic 12," JC answered. "I didn't take pleasure in killing her...but there was no other way." A brief moment passed, and then he added, "Besides, if I really wanted to kill you, I could have used your killphrase at any time."  
  
"You knew?" Gunther asked in surprse. JC simply nodded by way of answer.  
  
Gunther stared silently at JC for a long time then, his face betraying even less than it usually did. Finally, he sighed, and said, "I am defeated...go and get your cure. But know zis...I still remember Agent Navarre...and someday, Denton...I vill find you again."  
  
"Fair enough. Knowing you, I won't be too hard to find. Feel free to come, until you're satisfied. In the meantime, here; take these," he said, pulling out three Medkits and passing them to Gunther. "Rest up for round two...I'll see you then." And without another look back, the two former comrades parted ways for the last time...  
  
Author's Notes: Okay, first off: YES, you can get the virus schematics WITHOUT killing Gunther! I'll leave it to you to figure out how to do that, but rest assured it IS possible. However, it's nowhere near as dramatic as what happened here.:D I just figured it would be cooler to add a little flair to it. Oh, and yes...the ADS DOES work against flamethrowers...especially if it's maxed out.;) Hope you enjoyed this fic, short as it was... 


End file.
